Emily Zoladz | The Grand Rapids PressSteve Ford talks about how touched his family was during Betty Ford's funeral and plans for the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum Thursday in his father's old office on the second floor. It was Steven's first time back in Grand Rapids since Betty Ford's funeral.

GRAND RAPIDS -- Recent controversy over the Betty Ford Center overshadowed a $500,000 bequest by the former first lady to further its mission, according to Steve Ford, chairman of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation.

“The sad thing for me is I think her bequest of a half million dollars to the Betty Ford Center was lost in other matters,” Ford said Thursday in an interview at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum.

“That’s what will help to continue her mission of transforming lives with sober living. Mom’s passion was helping people who walked through those doors at the Betty Ford Center in crisis.”

Steve Ford said the release of documents related to a power struggle at the California drug and alcohol treatment center “would have saddened both my mom and my dad.”

In April 2010, Betty Ford wrote a letter to a board veteran who had been informed his services were no longer needed.

“Having been involved in politics for all those many years with my husband, I thought I was thick-skinned about such things,” she wrote, according to the paper.

“I never expected that a majority of the Betty Ford Center board would find itself so misguided. I can only hope that a clearer focus will be regained soon so that the center can re-establish a sure footing from which to move into the future.”

Ford’s daughter, Susan Ford Bales, was removed as chairwoman of the board last year.
More than 20 alumni sent a letter to center chairwoman Mary Pattiz on July 26, calling the center’s rift a “troubling situation” and questioning whether it was affecting patient care.

Steve Ford also confirmed that his father’s namesake museum will soon undergo a major revamping of its permanent exhibits, the first since a $5.3 million overhaul was completed in 1997.

“The foundation and the trustees and the family are excited and very soon we are going to have a press release about some changes at the museum,” Ford said.

“Dad’s legacy and mom’s legacy, which are both represented at the museum, they always need renewing because of technology and things like that.”

He expects the announcement to come within three months.

Ford said he and the other three Ford children were moved at the outpouring of affection in West Michigan for his mother following her death.

“It touched our family to see the reception, whether it was landing at the airport, or to see all the people along the highway. It was a surprise. It put a smile on everybody’s face to see how much mom was loved in Grand Rapids.”

She was buried in a site north of the museum on July 14, next to the former president on what would have been Gerald R. Ford’s 98th birthday.

Steve Ford recalled driving to Grace Episcopal Church in East Grand Rapids for the funeral service “and seeing all the people in the streets and the signs, ‘We Love You Betty’ and ‘Welcome Home, Betty.’ This was her home.